Is Travel Nursing Worth It? 8 Reasons to Chart Your Adventure (2024)

Last Updated on April 19, 2024

Is Travel Nursing Worth It? 8 Reasons to Chart Your Adventure (1)

Chart your adventure and level up in the new year! As we enter 2024, everyone’s starting to ask the same question: Is travel nursing worth it? Spoiler alert: It is!

Imagine a career in healthcare where you could explore parts of the country you never thought you’d see — where you could make your days off feel like a vacation, put more money into savings, open career opportunities, and choose your schedule. It’s all possible with traveling nurse jobs!

Discover the biggest opportunities to level up your nursing career, and reasons to chart your adventure as a travel nurse.

Chart Your Adventure Now: Explore Travel Nurse Jobs

How Do Traveling Nurse Jobs Work?

First things first: How do travel nurse jobs work? Travel nurses take on short-term assignments in various healthcare facilities across the country. These assignments typically last around 8 to 13 weeks, offering flexibility and the chance to explore different locations.

Once the contract is over, nurses can take a break in between, travel to their next assignment, and start working in a fresh, new environment.

Pro Tip: Many travel nurses work with agencies to help them level up with assignments at top facilities across the country, explore dream destinations, and more!

Level Up: 8 Reasons Why Travel Nursing is Worth It in 2024

Now, is travel nursing worth it, still? Even as the market begins to stabilize, there are still several opportunities and reasons to seek out traveling nurse jobs in 2024:

Higher Pay

You can’t answer the question, “Is travel nursing worth it?” without talking about pay. Travel nurses get paid more than the traditional nursing crew. On average, travel nurses pull in around $2,122 a week. This averages out to $8,211/month or $115,969/year, according to Indeed.com as of December 2023. However, some CareerStaff travel nurses make up to $3,000* weekly! Of course, salaries vary depending on the location of your assignment, travel stipends, and more.

One of the greatest benefits of traveling nurse jobs is the bonuses. Many assignments and agencies offer incentives, tax-free stipends, quick start, and holiday bonuses! This can significantly increase your take-home pay and quality of life as a nurse.

Decreased Burnout & Increased Flexibility

Feeling burnt-out? Traveling nurse jobs open up opportunities to level up your work-life balance, lifestyle freedom, and scheduling flexibility. You can take longer breaks between assignments — maybe even a few weeks off. You decide! Travel nurses can pick when they want to work when working out the contract, too.

Of course, the flexibility of traveling nurse jobs goes beyond time-off and scheduling. It’s also about where you work. You can choose assignments based on weather, personal interests, travel destination goals, or even locations near friends and family across the country. It’s your career on your terms.

New Career Opportunities & Resume-Building Experiences

For many travel nurses, it’s not just about the money. Traveling nurse jobs open doors to new career paths. As you work in different places with different people, you gain different skills, experiences, and knowledge.

The diverse experiences you gain with travel nursing are worth gold to your resume. Employers love seeing that you can thrive in various environments and adapt alongside their teams, making you a standout candidate.

New Connections in Your Career

Travel nurses have the unique opportunity to make friends and build a network across the country. Connect with new people and discover opportunities — it’s a whole world beyond your standard nursing routine.

Building a network in the healthcare industry can create future opportunities, too. Your fellow travel nurses might become lifelong friends or even valuable professional contacts.

Opportunity to Travel

Ready for the fun part? With travel nursing, your days off can turn into mini-vacations at locations worth exploring!

Explore vibrant areas like New York and Pennsylvania with endless things to do, see, and eat. Or, enjoy the great outdoors the best warm-weather destinations for travel nurses. The options are endless! Not many jobs let you travel while you work, in and outside of healthcare.

Traveling nurse jobs allow you to experience the rich culture of the U.S. Every state and even city is filled with unique cultures and subcultures. From bustling cities to serene landscapes, your assignments become more than just work — they become unforgettable adventures.

Quick Apply: Chart Your Travel Nursing Adventure!

Variety of Lifestyle

Every assignment brings something new for travel nurses: A new specialty, a new workplace, and a new home to explore. Say goodbye to routine boredom. It’s a lifestyle that keeps both work and life interesting. The variety and flexibility that come with traveling nurse jobs can help reduce burnout and keep your day-to-day interesting.

Personal Growth

For travel nurses, what you learn on the job goes beyond work. Adaptability, independence, cultural skills — it’s not just professional growth. You can become a more confident person, too. The challenges you overcome and the skills you develop make you more resilient, adaptable, and self-assured.

Travel nurses can also gain cultural competence as they build relationships with patients and colleagues across the U.S.

Travel Nurse Agencies Take Care of Everything for You

Let’s talk logistics. Moving can be stressful, right? Not as much for travel nurses. Agencies like CareerStaff handle it all — finding the positions, stipends, and negotiations, making travel nursing all the more worth it. They take the stress out of some of the most daunting parts of relocating.

How to Find Traveling Nurse Jobs

So, is travel nursing worth it? Yes! With more money, flexibility, career options, travel perks, and personal growth, it’s still one of the most exciting nursing opportunities in 2024. If you’re thinking of level up in your nursing career now, travel nursing jobs might just be the adventure you’re looking for.

Ready to chart your adventure with travel nursing? Search available travel nurse jobs, or Quick Apply below to get connected with a CareerStaff recruiter today!

Chart Your Adventure Now: Travel Nurse Jobs

Is Travel Nursing Worth It? 8 Reasons to Chart Your Adventure (2024)

FAQs

Is Travel Nursing Worth It? 8 Reasons to Chart Your Adventure? ›

Spoiler alert: It is! Imagine a career in healthcare where you could explore parts of the country you never thought you'd see — where you could make your days off feel like a vacation, put more money into savings, open career opportunities, and choose your schedule. It's all possible with traveling nurse jobs!

Is travel nursing worth it anymore? ›

While the pandemic presented unique challenges and opportunities, the pulse of travel nursing remains strong. The essence of this career choice—higher pay, flexibility, new connections, adventure, a politics-free environment, and professional growth—continues to thrive.

Is travel nursing still worth it in 2024? ›

While demand for travel nurses isn't as high as it was at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has seen a significant uptick in recent years and continues to grow in 2024. The nursing field, in general, is growing rapidly at 6% per year. Travel nursing is growing even faster within this overall field.

Is travel nursing oversaturated? ›

Is travel nursing oversaturated? Travel nurses are still in demand, but most companies want you to have at least a year of non-travel practice before hiring you.

Does travel nursing look good on a resume? ›

Travel nursing is an excellent want to build up your clinical skills and resume. While you may not see it as black and white as that, nurses who go on travel nursing assignments often are exposed to advanced technology practices and procedures that benefit them and their future patients.

Is travel nursing on the decline? ›

Between January to July 2022, the demand decreased by approximately 40 percent. And with that shift, travel nurse salaries also dropped closer to pre-pandemic pay rates. Yet despite these industry trends, many nurses still find travel nursing an appealing career path.

What is a disadvantage of being a travel nurse? ›

Travel Nurses Lack Job Security

The first is that you don't have the sort of job security afforded to others in the nursing profession. Travel nursing positions are usually easy to come by, as there is a nationwide nursing shortage and it's more extreme in some states than in others.

How long do people stay travel nurses? ›

How Long Are Travel Nursing Assignments? The standard travel nurse assignment is 13 weeks. However, contracts can range from as little as 2 to 26 weeks depending on the travel nursing agency and facilities. Many travel nurses choose to extend their contracts beyond the initial 13 weeks.

What kind of travel nurses are needed the most? ›

The following are the top travel nurse specialties for 2023:
  • Emergency Room (ER) Travel Nurses. ...
  • Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Travel Nurses. ...
  • NICU/PICU Travel Nurses. ...
  • Progressive Care Unit (PCU) Travel Nurses. ...
  • Telemetry Travel Nurses. ...
  • Operating Room Nurse. ...
  • Labor and Delivery (L&D) Travel Nurses. ...
  • Pediatric Travel Nurses.

Are traveling nurses happy? ›

Looking in from the outside, it looks like travel nurses are happy in their roles, reporting better compensation and higher job satisfaction than their permanent counterparts.

Why are travel nurses so overpaid? ›

The pay is commensurate with the challenges they face and the skills they bring to the job. Hospitals use travel nurses to fill short-term staff and managerial positions. Travel nurses live away from home for 13-26 weeks per assignment. Additional compensation is paid to help offset related costs and difficulties.

Can travel nurses make 6 figures? ›

As a travel nurse, you have the opportunity to earn over six figures, averaging about $114,603 per year. Depending on your experience, the need for your specialty, where you're interested in working, and much more, this number can potentially grow.

What is the hardest part of being a travel nurse? ›

The Hardest Things About Being a Travel Nurse
  • Being Away From Family & Friends.
  • Job Search More Often.
  • Paperwork.
  • Taxes.
  • Medical Insurance.
  • More to Learn.

How do I maximize my travel nurse salary? ›

How to Maximize Your Earnings as a Travel Nurse
  1. Researching and Choosing High-Paying Assignments. ...
  2. Negotiating Your Contract for Maximum Pay and Benefits. ...
  3. Maximizing Your Tax Deductions and Savings. ...
  4. Utilizing Bonuses and Incentives Offered by Agencies and Hospitals. ...
  5. Budget and Manage Your Expenses Effectively.

What is the outlook for travel nurses in 2024? ›

The Increase in Travel Contracts One emerging trend in 2024 is a rise in healthcare facilities offering travel nurse contracts directly rather than going through third-party staffing agencies. By cutting out the middleman, hospitals and clinics can provide higher compensation packages while avoiding agency fees.

Do travel nurses still make a lot of money? ›

How Much Money Do Travel Nurses Make? Under normal circ*mstances, many travel nurses have the potential to earn over $3,000 per week. Travel nurses can bring in over $50 per hour, plus company-paid housing accommodations. Making it entirely possible for travel nurses to make well over $100K per year.

What is the future of travel nurse pay? ›

A travel CVOR RN can expect to make closer to $3,000/week, even in 2024. It's important to note that many healthcare organizations offered “COVID rates” during the state of emergency, which went on for the better part of 18 months in the U.S.

How much more do travel nurses make compared to regular nurses? ›

Salaries are higher for travel nurses

Travel nurses can earn $100,000 or more per year. PayScale, for example, reports that the median salary for an emergency room nurse is $30.99 per hour. By comparison, an ER nurse on a short-term travel assignment can earn from $23.20 per hour to as high as $60.00 per hour.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Cheryll Lueilwitz

Last Updated:

Views: 5881

Rating: 4.3 / 5 (74 voted)

Reviews: 89% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Cheryll Lueilwitz

Birthday: 1997-12-23

Address: 4653 O'Kon Hill, Lake Juanstad, AR 65469

Phone: +494124489301

Job: Marketing Representative

Hobby: Reading, Ice skating, Foraging, BASE jumping, Hiking, Skateboarding, Kayaking

Introduction: My name is Cheryll Lueilwitz, I am a sparkling, clean, super, lucky, joyous, outstanding, lucky person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.